Phil Cunningham writes in the foreword to Karen Tweed's Traditional Irish Music book (and 2 cds) of 93 session tunes: "....Karen has never forgotten one of the most important aspects of traditional music: the session. The informal, fun side of playing, where tunes are shared, ideas and techniques swapped and in many cases, great bands are born.

Karen Tweed writes: ".... John Whelan was for me the perfect traditional Irish tutor. He taught me that every note in a tune is important; the amount of time and space you give to each note is crucial to creating your own style. This is 'phrasing' and to phrase a tune well is like speaking a sentence in a clear and relaxed manner. To talk about phrasing is like talking about dialect; the way you speak gives an insight into you as a person. So to phrase a tune correctly, you are giving something of your personality to the tune and that is what tradition is all about.

Having heard Burach from edinburgh playing last weekend they play extremely fast but also extremely brilliantly and some songs gentle and slow. In my experience Morris dancing always required very slow music while rapper dancing was never fast enough. In both cases the tempo stayed the same from beginning to end. By the way there are quite a few irish and scottish tunes used in Morris dancing!

Thanks for all the comments. Albatross(a session enthusiast)